Thursday, November 12, 2009

British Airways and Iberia to Merge

British Airways said that it and Iberia have agreed on a proposed merger that would create a "new, leading European airline group" incorporated in Madrid, but with operational and financial headquarters in London. British Airways will have majority control (at 55 percent) of the new group.

Depending on how you count the dough and the stock, the deal is valued at up to $7 billion.

The new airline group would have 419 aircraft and fly to 205 destinations.

British Airways said that the new corporate group "will combine the two companies’ leading positions in the UK and Spain and enhance their strong presence in the international long-haul markets, while retaining the individual brands and current operations of each airline."

Both airlines retain membership in the oneworld Alliance.

The holding group's name is TopCo. British Airways' Willie Walsh will be the group CEO. Iberia's Antonio Vázquez will be group chairman and Martin Broughton will be deputy group chairman.

Bio

Joe Sharkey's work appears in major national and international publications. For 19 years until 2015 he was a weekly columnist for the New York Times. He is now a weekly travel and entertainment columnist with the global website Travel.Buzz, as well as an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, He has written five books, four non-fiction and a novel, one of which is in development as a movie. Previously, he was an assistant national editor at the Wall Street Journal and a reporter and columnist with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
On Sept. 29, 2006, he was one of seven people on a business jet who survived a mid-air collision with a 737 over the Amazon. All 154 on the 737 died. His report on the crash appeared on the front page of the New York Times and later in the Sunday Times of London magazine.
He and his wife Nancy (who is a professor of journalism at the University of Arizona) live in Tucson with horses and parrots. He is working on a new novel about an international travel writer who hates to travel.
"JoeSharkey.com" is Copyright (c) 2006-2015 by Joe Sharkey.